The present invention relates to electronic watches and more particularly to apparatus which makes possible the correction of data contained in a watch, such as data concerning the hour and minute indicated by the watch and the hour and minute of the alarm setting.
Known correcting and selecting means usually comprise several operating members, such as push-buttons, which are accessible to the user of the watch and serve, on the one hand, for the selection of data which the user wishes to see displayed and, on the other hand, for the correction of such data.
These known correcting and selecting means necessitate the use of a plurality of operating members, the number of which is a function of the number of different items of data that the watch can furnish. It is, however, undesirable, as much from the standpoint of manufacturing cost as from that of convenience of utilization of the watch, to multiply the number of operating members provided for effecting the corrections and selections of the data to be displayed.
Various different solutions have been put forward with a view to avoiding these disadvantages. For example, Swiss Patent Specification No 608,163 teaches the use, for the selection and correction of data contained in a watch, of a winder crown which can occupy any selected one of three stable axial positions, ie an intermediate neutral position, a pulled-out position and a pushed-in position. The selection of the item of data to be corrected is made by pulling out the winder crown one or more times, the winder crown being returned resiliently to its intermediate position. The correction of the selected data is effected by successive depressions of the winder crown, each depression causing the number constituting the selected data to increase by one. This known apparatus has in particular the disadvantage that it enables the correction to be effected in only one direction.
In addition, watches have been developed which have digital means as well as analogue means for indicating time data, the second-mentioned means usually consisting of hands driven by a stepping motor. It is desirable in this case to be able to correct at one and the same time identical data displayed simultaneously by the two display means. It is desirable in this case to be able to effect the correction of each kind of data in each of the two directions as required, ie in both the advance and retard directions.
British patent specification No. 2,019,052 discloses an electronic watch of this type which offers this possibility of bidirectional correction. In this known watch, the correction is effected with the aid of a rotatable button which operates contacts which make possible the detection of the direction of rotation of the button in order to effect the correction in the advance or retard direction and the production of the pulses which produce the correction. However, in this known watch, the correction is effected by means of several operating members, as a result of which the correction operation is difficult for the user. This known watch comprises in effect, in addition to the rotatable button, an operating member for the selection of data displayed and another operating member for bringing about the change over from the normal operating condition of the watch to the correction condition.